Words bringing Trouble
by Quinis
Summary: Neal's got brothers. They come to visit (but it's for work, not play)


Prompt from PhantomGoat13:

 _Had this idea pop in my head of what would happen if Neal/Dick had to bring his brothers to the office one day because no one else can watch them. Thought you might be able to do something with it!_

 **Notes:** I googled some random words and put them together with the idea of Neal/Dick's brothers being around. This is a rather random story but I hope you enjoy anyway. Also, very little editing went into this so beware mistakes.

* * *

 **Words bringing Trouble**

* * *

 **Sheep**

"Counting sheep should work." A young adult muttered to himself as he paced around outside the elevator. Diana didn't know what to make of it.

"Counting sheep for what?" she asked. She expected the skinny business kid to jump in surprise but he just looked up with a flat expression.

"Isn't it obvious? For getting to sleep. I need some alternatives which don't involve sleeping tablets."

Diana nodded her understanding. Taking tablets just to be able to sleep seemed like a hassle. Being reliant on them would make getting to sleep without them even harder than before.

"I hope you don't plan to sleep here though," she said. "You'll get kicked out of the way."

The kid hummed and nodded, right as the elevator doors opened. Diana got on with him following a moment later.

It seemed the kid had a habit of mumbling to himself. "Which floor was it? 20? 21?"

"Are you looking for the White Collar office?" Diana asked. It made sense for a young corporate kid to be sent to speak with Peter or Hughes about ongoing cases. She wondered which company was getting antsy.

The kid nodded and seemed relieved when she told him the floor. The elevator ride was quiet after that. The kid seemed more interesting in his phone than talking. Diana followed him out and watched as he walked into the office and looked around.

"Oh." The little gasp came from Neal, reclining at his desk with his feet resting up on it. "Came to see if you can keep us from talking to the press about Wayne Industries?"

The kid stared at Diana. She was beginning to wonder if he was all there. However, being from Wayne Industries made her a little more wary of him. Wayne Industries had recently rose up in connection to one of their cases and so, Peter had reached out to the New York branch of the company for an explanation.

"More like, I came to ask a favour."

Neal dropped his feet and leaned forward. "Tell me more."

"Our... 'brothers' are going to be arriving soon and they need a place to stay. Guess whose place was volunteered?"

"Yours?" Neal responded with a smile. A smile which quickly faded when he realised that the kid wasn't confirming that. "Tell me less. There's no way all of you are staying in my apartment. There's not enough room."

"Too late. It's been decided. I'm only here to keep you up to date and to deliver the statements and information Agent Burke requested."

Diana was impressed. That was fast. She hadn't expected Wayne Industries to get the information together in only a few days.

Neal however, didn't seem impressed.

"You have brothers?" Jones questioned. Diana had missed that little detail. She looked between Neal and the kid.

"Your brother works for Wayne?" she added.

Neal groaned and dropped his head onto his desk. His brothers owed him big time.

* * *

 **Gap**

They stood rooftops apart, staring at each other. Each willing the other to look away first so that time could move again. Finally, Red Hood stepped off the rooftop and into the void below. A rope shot out and Red Hood cleared the game like any self-respecting Gotham hero.

For a moment, Neal thought his brother would go splat on the pavement. But he hid his still quickly beating heart and cold sweat by walking over to the fridge and pulling out two beers.

"Where are the others?" he asked as he placed the beer in front of Jason. Jason pulled off the helmet and opened the beer.

"Somewhere in New York."

Neal narrowed his eyes. "New York is both a state and a very large city. I'm going to need more than that."

"Didn't you train under the B-man?" Jason smirked. "Surely that should be enough." He grinned and took a sip of the beer. "Don't worry. They're somewhere within two miles of here."

Damian and Tim arrived at four in the morning. Jason was snoozing on the couch and Neal woke up long enough to show them where they were sleeping and to remind them that he had work in the morning.

* * *

 **Compose**

Jason won June over immediately. Neal knew how but he didn't share that information with Tim and Damian, much to their annoyance.

"But how did he do it?" Damian questioned for the fourth time that day. It seemed he would keep doing that every time he hit a wall in his investigation into how 'Jason managed to win her over'.

No matter how annoying Damian's constant questioning and frustration was, Neal wasn't going to tell them about how he saw Jason singing a song with June. June played the piano while Jason just made up words and hums to go with it.

* * *

 **Thanks**

The last thing Neal wanted to see in a meeting was his brothers walking through the door to the White Collar office. One of the agents went down to see what they were here for since Neal didn't feel like mentioning that they were likely there for him.

The agent came back and Neal felt all eyes on him as his theory was proved correct.

"I'll go see what they want then," he said with his conman's smile on his face. "Can I give them lessons if they want to learn from the greatest conman and thief?"

"You shouldn't have to ask," Peter said.

"Is that a 'yes'?"

Peter tilted his head downwards in order to glare at Neal. "That's a 'no', Caffrey, and you know it."

Neal nodded with a grin still plastered on his face. He then walked out and down the stairs. The smile was gone now, replaced with a frown.

"What are you guys doing here?" Neal asked in a quiet voice.

"I had the brilliant idea of inviting you to lunch," Jason said with his chest puffed out proudly.

"So you decided to turn up at the office and blow my cover?" Neal questioned.

Jason was still smiling. That was a yes.

"I figure they've already seen me," Tim said with a shrug. Neal had thought Tim had more sense than that.

"I already cleared it," Damian said.

"With who?" Jason and Tim questioned in unison.

"Artemis. I checked how long Neal Caffrey has been an entity and then cross referenced that with teams Grayson was on at the time and contacted someone he was close to on those teams."

"Oh?" Jason said, in an interested tone. "How clever. Do tell."

Damian glared at Jason, perhaps knowing that he was only flattering him in order to get information. However, he rose to the bait anyway.

"If it was from his time with young justice, you contact Artemis. For his time with the teen titans, you contact Raven or Kori. Justice League and any family related missions, you contact father. Of course, you only know it's father if the other leads don't lead anywhere." Damian said all this in a tone which said that Jason should know this already.

Neal wondered if he should have told Damian less stories related to his past when they worked together. Of course, Damian had missed a couple of groups but that was okay; Neal had worked with almost every team at one time or another.

"Or you could save yourself some time and just contact Wally or Roy," Tim said.

"Those two idiots don't know anything of worth," Damian countered. "Roy knows more about Jason's life than he does Gr-Caffrey's!"

"No arguments here," Jason said with a smug grin at Neal. Neal rolled his eyes.

"Guys, get out of the FBI building, thank you."

"Come to lunch with us," Tim insisted. "After all, it's not like you're needed for the meeting. You're a CI, not an agent."

Neal flinched. He frowned and crossed his arms. Jason knocked Tim over the head.

"Nice going," Jason muttered.

"Dinner," Neal finally said. "We'll have dinner together. Until 5pm, I'm staying with my team."

* * *

 **Gem**

Crash. The sound of shattering glass filled the room. Red Hood cursed as the powerful, magical ruby shattered against the ground.

"That... shouldn't have happened, should it?" Red Robin asked.

"Nope," Red Hood said. The criminal magic user dropped to the ground, knocked out by Robin. Not that it was a challenge for Robin. The magic user had been close to sobbing, wailing about how the great magical ruby was a fake.

"So, how does a great magical ruby end up replaced with a face?" Red Hood asked the tagalongs.

"Maybe it wasn't magical in the first place?" Red Robin suggested.

"That doesn't explain how the ruby was replaced with a fake," Robin said.

The three vigilantes stared at the shattered ruby. Say the ruby had been taken and replaced with a fake. New York was a big city so the chances of finding who took it were close to one in eight million.

A thought occurred to Red Robin. "Isn't this place within two miles of the place we're staying?"

There was a beat of silence.

* * *

 **True**

Flashes of red, yellow and black shined on the balcony. Mozzie was off his chair in a bolt and screaming.

"They've come for us Neal! Oh no, we're going to be shot and decapitated and thrown to the wolves!"

Neal tried to calm Mozzie down as the little guy bolted around the apartment, instead of running for one of the bolt holes. He was a little touched by how Mozzie seemed unwilling to escape without Neal.

Finally, Neal bellowed, "THEY'RE MY BROTHERS!" and Mozzie froze.

"What?"

By now, Red Hood had opened the door and walked in. He also took off his helmet, although he kept the mask under it on.

"We're his brothers, shortie," Red Hood said.

"We're not here to arrest him. Or you," Red Robin answered.

"We should tell father though."

"The Batman?" Mozzie gasped, breathes wheezing.

Neal sighed. "About what?"

"You took the ruby," Red Hood to Neal, jabbing a finger in his direction. Red Robin held up the empty chain and shattered pieces.

"Oh no," Mozzie said, fear forgotten in the face of their ruined work. He walked over and examined the pieces. "I knew the process wasn't perfected."

"We were trying to give a fake ruby, fake magical warmth," Neal said with a shrug. "It wasn't going to be easy. We can try again."

"I told you those chemicals would make the structure weak!" Mozzie accused Neal.

"And I told you it wasn't a problem unless people were treating it roughly," Neal responded. "Who treats an expensive ruby roughly?"

"Criminals, Dick," Red Hood stated.

Mozzie gasped. "Never!"

"Criminals who don't care for the act of the con like you two," Red Robin added.

Neal and Mozzie glared at him.

"You broke it, didn't you?" Neal said, seeing through the real reason his brothers were here. It wasn't because he had forged a ruby but because they had been tricked by it.

"No!" Red Hood proclaimed, placing his hand on his chest like he was insulted by the very notion.

"We were there to catch criminals." Red Robin crossed his arms, looking the very figure of authority.

"It was a magical ruby. Everyone knows you don't break things like that. I'm not an idiot like those two."

Mozzie stared at them for a moment more before turning to Neal. "Just how dysfunctional is your family?"

"Hey," Neal said, insulted. "We're functional."

"Barely," Red Robin added.

* * *

 **Grant**

Neal caught Mozzie alone before the little guy dashed off to collect his gossip of the day.

"Since that Ruby really grants some kind of magical power, get rid of it," Neal said. "Preferably before my brothers find it."

"Where do you want me to put it, Neal?" Mozzie questioned. "I doubt there's a shop which specialises in offloading stolen, magical, rubies."

"There's Magic Marge."

Mozzie's nose scrunched up in distaste. "Marge is not a proper fence. Half her stock is fake and the other half is souvenirs of dried heads and things which don't do anything."

"Maybe it's time we change that." Mozzie gave him his best 'stop fooling around, Neal' look and Neal laughed. "I'm kidding. Here." He passed Mozzie an address. "Go there. That's the address of the New York branch of the Teen Titans. I believe Kori's still there and she'll know what to do with the ruby."

"Kori?"

"Starfire."

Mozzie grinned. "Consider it done. As long as I get to ask her all the questions I have about the universe and conspiracy theories surrounding the aliens among us."

Neal was going to have to send Kori flowers after this. Although he figured talking about the mysteries of the universe with a like mind would make her happy, the conspiracy theories part would definitely tire her out. Or worse, the theories would be more than just theories and she and Mozzie would end up going on some quest to save Earth from some alien menace.

* * *

The next evening, Neal's apartment was empty of vigilantes. Mozzie sat at the table with a glass of wine in his hand and a smug smile on his face.

"What did you do?" Neal questioned.

"Starfire offered to take them off our hands for a while."

"Moz. What specifically did you do?"

"Turns out one of my theories was correct. Starfire borrowed your brothers to help put a stop to it."

Of course. Neal had been afraid of that. At least Mozzie hadn't been the one to go running off. "Which one?"

Mozzie smiled. "You'll have to guess."

Or he could just stress out about what his brothers were up to and whether they would come home alive until one of them tells him what they were up to.


End file.
